


In The Zone

by Lizzie_Tempest



Series: One-shots [7]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, F/M, Friendzone, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader is heartbroken, Reader-Insert, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, sans and reader have a platonic relationship, sans is completely clueless, she just wants oreos, so oblivious that he should win an award, this is a vent fic, undyne and alphys are good friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27637601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzie_Tempest/pseuds/Lizzie_Tempest
Summary: A year after moving so you can be closer to your new job, Sans finds and confronts you.  He wants to know why you won't talk to him when you used to be such good friends.You can't bring yourself to tell him that he broke your heart.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Series: One-shots [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/986262
Comments: 18
Kudos: 63





	In The Zone

**Author's Note:**

> a few years ago, the guy i was crushing on told me i was "the best little sister ever" and i'm not gonna lie, i'm still a little bitter over it. so here's a shitty vent fic to try and help my ass get over it :/

"(y/n)?"

You flinched, stopping yourself from reaching for the Oreos. Your hand fell back to your side and you dug your nails into your palm as you silently pleaded with the universe for the voice who called your name to not belong to _him._ Maybe if you ignore him, or pretend you didn't hear him, he'll go away?

"(y/n), is that you?"

You slumped slightly. Well, there really was no avoiding this. You just _had_ to come to the grocery store today. And so you turned to face him.

Sans the skeleton still looked the same. Same pink slippers. Same fluffy blue hoodie. Same silly grin. He hadn't changed a bit. His smile faltered slightly as his eyelights took in your form. He couldn't help but notice that your eyes no longer twinkled. You looked tired and just apathetic. He'd go as far as to say that you looked depressed. He forced his grin back, chuckling slightly as he noticed the Oreos you'd been trying to reach. At least that stayed the same.

"so...er, flower you doing?" he said, nodding towards the bouquet of flowers in your shopping cart and winking.

He seemed to deflate when you didn't really react to his joke. You had always laughed at his jokes before. The two of you had been the best of friends. Practically inseparable. And then, suddenly you distanced yourself. Before he knew it, you were moving away. A new job, you had said. You had promised that you would keep in touch, and you did! With Papyrus and his other friends. He couldn't understand why you never seemed to want to speak to him, and his brother was never able to get you to tell him where you lived.

To say he was a little shocked to see you here, while he and his friends were on vacation, was an understatement. Did you really move all the way out here? For some job? Was it really worth it?

You merely shrugged in answer to his question. You made a point of not looking at him. You knew you wouldn't be able to. It would hurt too much. You had come so far, and made so much progress. You were finally starting to move on. You couldn't believe that he actually found you. You really did have the worst luck.

"(y/n)..?"

You turned away and began to study the Oreos once again. Huh, the cinnamon bun ones were back in stock. You didn't waste time in grabbing three boxes, and another five; each one a different flavour. The original, birthday cake, red velvet, lemon and chocolate hazelnut.

"hey, will you...please talk to me?"

You shook your head. There wasn't anything to say. It's not like anything would change if you told him the truth anyway. You grabbed your cart and began to wheel it away. You couldn't do this right now, and all you wanted to do was hide away with your beloved oreos and cry. Maybe you could pick up some ice cream too.

You froze as you felt a bony hand on your shoulder, its grip tightening when you tried to pull away.

"Sans. Please let go."

"not until you turn around and talk to me."

"Hey!"

You jumped and whipped your head in the direction of the new voice. One of the staff members had noticed what was going on and he had walked over, arms folded. He raised an eyebrow as he took in the scene before him: the skeleton monster gripping your shoulder and your defeated look which quickly turned hopeful as it turned towards him.

"You okay?" he asked you.

"of course she's okay! we were - "

The redhead turned his steely gaze back to the skeleton and narrowed his eyes.

"Wasn't asking you. I was asking her. Last I checked, you weren't her keeper, and she doesn't exactly look happy to see you."

"what?! but we're friends! i was just - "

You quickly shrugged out of the skeleton's grip and stepped further away as he tried to reach for you.

"It was a misunderstanding. He thought I was someone else, but he won't leave me alone..."

You tried to keep your voice even, tried to stop yourself from showing the emotions that were warring inside of you.

The redhead nodded and stepped between you and the skeleton and folded his arms.

"Sorry, dude. M'gonna have to ask you to leave."

You continued to stare at the floor as Sans protested. You only began to walk away once the security had been called. You could hear him calling out for you but you hardened your heart and refused to look back. You'd never been so glad that there weren't any lines as the cashier rang up your items.

You hastily threw the teenager a wad of cash, insisting they keep the change as you grabbed your bags and practically ran out of the store. You hurried across the car park, eyes flitting about as you kept your eyes open for the skeleton you were so desperately hoping to avoid.

"(Y/N)!"

You flinched once more. Oh stars. You loved Papyrus with all your heart and soul, but you so wished that he wouldn't draw attention to you. You turned to meet his eyes, the tall skeleton clearly about to walk into the store (most likely to grab Sans). He grinned joyously and made to walk over. He stopped when you dropped your bags, gesturing for him to be quiet. He tilted his skull to the side in question as his grin fell, eyelights falling to your hands as your desperately began to sign.

'Please don't tell Sans. I don't want him to know where I live, and I don't want to see him.'

Papyrus' sockets widened slightly and his mouth parted before closing. He wrung his hands together nervously as he glanced inside, turning back to face you with a quick nod. He gestured for you to go, watching with a heavy heart as you opened the trunk of your car and loaded it up with your bags. You looked back one last time and gave a sad smile before speeding away.

Papyrus hated that he couldn't talk to you like he used to. But he also hated how you were when his brother broke your heart, and he never wanted to see you like that again. Seeing you practically run from the store like that, with that terrified and broken expression on your face...

Papyrus was no idiot. He knew that Sans must have seen you inside the store and confronted you. Stars above. He could only imagine what you must be feeling. He would have to text Undyne. Her and Alphys would be able to talk and comfort you. Of course, if he had known that you lived near here, then he would have never brought his brother. Oh, why did he have to choose this town to have a vacation with his friends and brother?

* * *

You looked up briefly as your phone pinged. With a deep sigh, great reluctance and a heavy feeling of dread, you placed the cinnamon bun oreos onto the coffee table before reaching for the device. You prayed that it wasn't Sans. You had changed your number after you left, but the skeleton monster always did have a way of finding things out. It wouldn't surprise you if he had finally managed to get it out of Papyrus.

But on looking at the screen, you couldn't help but sigh in relief as you saw Undyne's name instead. You grinned softly and opened up the text.

Undyne: Yo punk! Heard from Paps that Sans found you... You okay?

You: ...not really...

Undyne: Is your laptop on? We'll video call. Alphy wants to say hi.

You sent one more text, confirming that your laptop was on and eagerly waited for the call to come through from two of your best friends. The call finally came through and you quickly clicked to accept it, grinning tiredly as Undyne cheered. Alphys waved at you sheepishly and giggled as she pointed to your shirt.

Looking down had you wincing and you could feel your cheeks flush in embarrassment. Your shirt was covered in crumbs from the cookies you had been stuffing your face with.

"It's so good to see you guys! I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

"Yeah, well we've been a little busy ourselves! You have any idea how hard it is to make cosplays from scratch, punk?!" Undyne laughed.

You grinned. You had an idea. You could never try and do that, you were always scared of using a sewing machine. A deep rooted fear that came from watching as a girl in your art class accidentally sewed her fingers together using one. But your two monster friends were always careful and even their more ambitious projects always turned out amazing.

You felt so much better already.

"S-so how h-has your work b-been g-going?" Alphys asked.

You couldn't help but roll your eyes and let out a noise of annoyance. You loved your job. You really did. You'd always wanted to be an animator and when the opportunity presented itself, you jumped at the chance. Sure, you'd had to move to be closer. But you were doing what you loved now and you liked the people you worked with.

Except for Trisha.

"Let me guess. Trisha?" Undyne smirked. You nodded.

Trisha was the kind of person who would pretend to be everyone's friend, but it was clear that everyone kinda hated her. She could be terribly insulting. She was constantly talking about her beloved grandson who was just such a little angel. She brought him to work one day and set the three year old loose. The toddler had whirled through the place like a mini tornado leaving disaster and destruction in his wake. A lot of projects had been ruined and had to be started again from scratch because of it. Trisha had just laughed and made excuses. It wasn't his fault, he's just having a tough time because his parents are getting divorced at the moment. Yeah, everyone rolled their eyes at that one.

You didn't have a problem with her until she started acting incredibly patronising towards you. Being the newest recruit to the team and definitely one of the youngest, you found yourself being the one taking coffee and lunch orders at the start. Once you'd been there a while and you started showing off your talent, you started getting a lot more respect. Trisha on the other hand treated you like you were still a child. She talked to you like you had trouble understanding things and acted like you were constantly getting things wrong.

Your dislike for her grew when you found out how racist she was towards monsters. Having a few monsters on your team made things extremely uncomfortable for them when she was around because of this.

"So, tell me again why she hasn't been fired yet?" Undyne asked.

"Urgh. It's because she's a relative of the boss. Or a neighbour. Or something. I dunno. I don't really care." You shoved another oreo into your mouth. You hated talking about the woman with a passion.

"S-so. Erm. W-what h-happened with Sans?"

You froze.

"That bad, huh?"

You sighed and nodded.

"(Y/n), why don't you just tell him how you feel?"

You grabbed the tub of ice cream that had been melting slightly and the spoon, pulling the lid off and scooping a massive spoonful and shoving it into your mouth to try and avoid the question.

"There's no point Undyne. He said I was the best little sister ever. That's worse than the friend zone."

Undyne winced. Okay. Yeah, that was bad. The friend zone was horrible, but at least there was still a slight chance. Her and Alphys had started as friends after all and now they were so in love that they embarrassed their friends with how affectionate they were. But being told "you're the best little sister ever"? There's no coming back from something like that, there's no hope of anything ever happening. She was going to kill Sans.

For the rest of the night Undyne and Alphys kept the topic off Sans. They were determined to cheer you up. They kept your mind occupied by showing off the latest cosplays they had been working on, even trying them on so you could get a better look at them. You had laughed as Undyne would strike silly poses and Alphys encouraged you to join in and wear one of your costumes.

Before long Undyne was dressed as Haruhi Suzumiya, Alphys was wearing her Mew Mew costume and you had dressed as Violet Evergarden. The wig itched a little but it wasn't too bad, especially when your friends gushed over how good you looked. You couldn't help but grin and get more excited for the next convention. Only a few more months to go.

It was almost midnight before the call finally ended, your friends reassuring you that things were going to be okay. You had to admit that you felt a lot better than you had at the start of the call. You yawned quietly as you pulled the wig off your head and set it down on one of the dressers in your room. You carefully peeled the costume from your body, taking care not to crease it, and then hung it up in your wardrobe.

You smiled tiredly.

Yeah, you were going to be okay.

* * *

Sans paced nervously.

He had overheard Papyrus talking to Undyne on the phone, asking her to talk to you. When the call had finished, he'd sent a text to the fish monster himself, wondering if she could find anything on why you didn't want to talk to him. He felt guilty about having Undyne and Alphys find out why you'd been so cold to him. He didn't want to manipulate you, but you had refused to talk to him. He hadn't been left with any other choice! He just wanted to find out what he had done wrong so he could set things right. He knew that he had upset you in some way, that much was clear from the way you had treated him in the supermarket.

But what was it?

A furious knocking interrupted his thoughts and he called out that the door to the cabin he was currently staying in was open. The ones who opened the door were none other than Alphys and Undyne themselves and he stopped his pacing as he gave them his full attention. This was perfect! They must've found something out and come to tell him! He'd be able to mend his friendship with you and everything would go back to normal!

When he paid attention to the looks on his friends faces, he couldn't help but think that something was wrong. Alphys looked nervous and was avoiding looking at him. Undyne had no trouble meeting his gaze, but it was clear to see that she was pissed. He gulped. What had you told them exactly? Surely there must've been some kind of misunderstanding. To his knowledge, he hadn't done anything that could've sparked all this from you.

He had to be able to put it right. He WOULD put it right! He just had to.

"well? did she tell you what's up?" He asked.

The two exchanged glances, seeming to have a silent conversation with each other. Undyne stepped forward.

"Okay. First of all, we gotta know. How do you feel towards her?" She narrowed her eye dangerously and Sans couldn't help but feel as if he was walking on thin ice.

Sans blanched at the question. What? What kind of question was that? Everyone knew how he felt towards you, so it was pointless even asking.

"heh. bit of an odd thing to ask. but you know how i feel. everyone knows how i feel! she's my best friend! i just...i just want her to be my friend again. it's not too much to ask, is it?"

The two monsters stayed silent. The fish monster folded her arms and looked away, fangs bared in a snarl. Alphys fidgeted and picked at the ends of her claws nervously. Sans could see the sweat pouring off the dinosaur monster and immediately felt guilty. He knew how bad she could feel in situations that caused her distress.

"I-is that all y-you feel?" Alphys stuttered out.

He raised a brow bone. How else was he supposed to feel? He cared for you deeply and would do anything for you. He'd stood up for you numerous times when other humans took it upon themselves to bully you. He'd given you advice and helped you study when you were in college. He cared for you so much that he practically saw you as family and made sure that you knew that. But for all the time he'd spent with you, as much as he thought he knew you, he was starting to think that he didn't know as much as he should.

"um. yeah? she's like a sister to me! at least, she was..."

Undyne whistled, running her webbed hand through her hair and Alphys facepalmed, almost breaking her glasses in the process.

"Damn. (Y/n) wasn't kidding." The fish monster muttered as she turned away.

Sans blinked. What was that supposed to mean? Before he could question the two further, the dinosaur monster seemed to gather her courage. As she started to speak, Sans couldn't help but notice that she wasn't stuttering.

"Okay, let's see. How do we put this? Erm... Right. So, you know how in the very first episode of DNAngel when Daisuke confesses his feelings to Risa? And she turns him down because she doesn't feel the same way and asks if the two can still be friends, but even though Daisuke says yes, he's still completely heartbroken over being friend-zoned?"

The skeleton tilted his head questioningly. He was completely baffled now. Why the sudden subject change? What on earth did anime have to do with this?

"...yeah... pretty sad, i guess. it worked out for him though, right? now can we get back to what we were actually talking about?"

Undyne groaned and the dinosaur monster hung her head, mumbling under her breath about "Completely oblivious" and "No wonder she had trouble." Undyne decided that she'd had enough of dropping hints. Time to get straight to the point. She stepped forward and gripped Sans' hoodie, the skeleton squawking as she pulled him up so she could look him straight in his eyelights, leaving his slippered feet dangling.

"Alright. Listen up punk. I'm only gonna say this once." She paused, waiting for Sans to protest in some way and when he stayed silent she continued.

"Before she took that job and moved away, (y/n) had a crush on you. She'd been dropping hints and flirting with you and considering how smart Papyrus claims you are, you seem to be dumb enough not to know when someone is head over heels for you."

As the words registered, his eyelights vanished and his grin became a little more strained.

"Now, because you didn't get the hint, (y/n) decided she was gonna confess her feelings. This was around the time she got that job offer and she'd been pretty on the fence about it. She couldn't decide whether to go or stay, but she was leaning towards staying. Because she liked you!"

Sans' bones began to rattle slightly and he slowly shook his skull. No. It couldn't be true.

"So she hyped herself up and went to tell you. And then, just as she was about to tell you, you tell her that she's **the best little sister ever!** Do you have any idea how devastating that would have been for her to hear?!" Undyne was shouting now.

Undyne was about to say more, but was stopped when Alphys placed a claw on her arm, silently begging her not to do anything drastic. Her fins drooped slightly and she dropped Sans back to the ground, hands clenching into fists as she looked away from the skeleton. Sans didn't know what to say. What could he say? Alphys sighed and turned back to him.

"S-sans. We don't b-blame you. It's not y-your fault. You c-cant help how you f-feel. It's okay. She's d-doing better now... I mean, it took her a while to get o-over it, b-but her work helps! She's really g-good at it and s-she wouldn't have taken the job if you hadn't broken her heart."

Sans winced. So, he drove you away? He didn't mean to. Stars, why didn't he see it? He felt awful! No wonder you hated him.

You were never going to forgive him for this, were you? Surely you understood that he couldn't force himself to like you in that way. Of course you would understand, that must be why you had distanced yourself. That must be why you took that job and moved away.

He found that he couldn't blame you for the way you acted in the supermarket. You were entitled to feeling bitter about being confronted by the one who rejected your feelings while being completely oblivious. You probably dove head first into your work in order to distract yourself from the heartbreak. That would explain why you had looked so tired.

The more Sans thought about the situation, the more he began to despair. He'd wanted so desperately to repair the friendship he had with you. There was no way that he would be able to do that now. There would be no going back from this. If he tried, then any time you two hung out together it would just be incredibly awkward. It wouldn't be the same.

He wouldn't be able to get you back as a friend, and you would forever have that ache in your soul that he had caused.

And even knowing all this, he still couldn't bring himself to feel anything more for you. He couldn't. He didn't see you in a romantic way! If he did, then maybe he would stand a chance at fixing the damage he'd caused. But there was nothing that he could do.

Sans would have to let you go.

**Author's Note:**

> Bother me on Tumblr: https://lizzie-tempest.tumblr.com/
> 
> (jfc i'm so tired right now)


End file.
